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[Draugoth]

A demo for Visions of Mana is now available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store, publisher and developer Square Enix, and developer Ouka Studios announced.


Here is an overview of the demo, via its store pages:

About
Experience a section of the story, battles, and exploration in this demo of Visions of Mana.
(Some content differs from the release version of the game.)
Demo Bonuses

Play the demo and receive three weapons in the full game:

• Gladius (small sword for Val)
• Falx (great sword for Val)
• Horn Lance (lance for Val)

(These weapons can be claimed by starting a new game and proceeding as far as Chapter 1. This bonus item can also be acquired by progressing through the game.)

Visions of Mana is due out for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on August 29 worldwide.

 

[jshackles]

 

[Punished Miku]

12 GB.

 

[thatJohann]

Nice!

 

[Pejo]

I already know I'm buying it, but what the heck, I'll take it for a spin first.

 

[Fake]

Gonna give a try.

 

[Danjin44]

 

[thatJohann]

It’s pretty.

I see that both performance mode and graphics mode target 60fps. I guess a VRR / PS5 Pro mode.

 

[jshackles]

Runs at a smooth 30fps on Steam Deck, nice.

Text is pretty small though.

 

[Gaiff]

Nice. One of my most anticipated games of the year.

 

[RoboFu]

Nice. One of my most anticipated games of the year.

Me to .. downloading the demo now.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[MagiusNecros]

Downloading as well. I feel good about this one.

 

[Gaiff]

Sigh, of course, ultrawide support is nowhere to be found. Don't think I've seen it in a single JRPG.

 

[thatJohann]

The English voice acting is … oof.

 

[MLSabre]

I'm gonna assume this is gonna be like Final Fantasy, Tales of, etc. in that each Mana titles are their self-contained stories? 'Cause I'm making this my first foray into the Mana series and I kinda don't want to go through all the series yet.

 

[Doomtrain]

I'm gonna assume this is gonna be like Final Fantasy, Tales of, etc. in that each Mana titles are their self-contained stories? 'Cause I'm making this my first foray into the Mana series and I kinda don't want to go through all the series yet.

Correct. They have loose connections in that they take place in the same world and have some familiar faces between them, but the stories are self-contained. Additionally, the Mana series generally has fairly light/inconsequential storytelling compared to a lot of other jRPG’s. Definitely no need to play the others first.

 

[Gaiff]

I'm gonna assume this is gonna be like Final Fantasy, Tales of, etc. in that each Mana titles are their self-contained stories?

Yes.

 

[Gaiff]

The English voice acting is … oof.

I find it alright. Only jarring one is that catgirl who speaks with a Southern American accent. I hate when they do shit like that. Completely out of place.

 

[Labadal]

Cool. Going to try it out.

 

[Punished Miku]

Finished the demo.



... yeah.

 

[demonstr8]

Ho

Finished the demo.



... yeah.

How long did it last?

 

[bender]

I'm not sure what I dislike more, the character models or their English voice acting.

 

[Punished Miku]

Ho

How long did it last?

I ended up rushing a bit at the end. You could spend an hour or so playing no problem.

 

[Danjin44]

I was already sold and demo convinced me even more.

The artstyle is absolutely gorgeous and combat is fun.

Only jarring one is that catgirl

I think she suppose to dragon girl since she has dragon wings and tail.

 

[Gaiff]

I was already sold and demo convicted me even more.

The artstyle is absolutely gorgeous and combat is fun.


I think she suppose to dragon girl since she has dragon wings and tail.

Didn’t look too closely. Whatever the case, the accent doesn’t suit her at all. Her motif seems to be that of a Chinese warrior, but she has a Southern American accent. Awful mix.

 

[MagiusNecros]

I was already sold and demo convicted me even more.

The artstyle is absolutely gorgeous and combat is fun.

Yeah same here. It's a day 1 easily. Each Elemental gives each character a different Class and you can spend Clovers to unlock passives, attacks and skills for that Class.

Lots of little things to experiment between basic attacks, MP skills, Class Strikes and the Mana Globe for Combo attacks. You can set items and skills to shortcuts and also have a drop in menu that pauses the action for snappy decisions mid fight on top of character switching mid fight and in the field.

Very pretty game too. Anyone that wants a classic JRPG that's action based and similar to other Mana games or Tales Of series this is a real winner just based off the demo.

 

[Diseased Yak]

Played it on PC, will buy upon release for sure. Rock solid 120fps running around, then a jarring move into 30fps cap for cutscenes. Have it set to "quality" though, and I'm not worried about it, excited for release!

 

[Gaiff]

Played it on PC, will buy upon release for sure. Rock solid 120fps running around, then a jarring move into 30fps cap for cutscenes. Have it set to "quality" though, and I'm not worried about it, excited for release!

Rock solid 120fps with those shader compilation stutters? Doubt it.

 

[Danjin44]

Didn’t look too closely. Whatever the case, the accent doesn’t suit her at all. Her motif seems to be that of a Chinese warrior, but she has a Southern American accent. Awful mix.

Then use JP voice, from the english trailer I wasn't fan of the english voices either so I just switched to JP voice and problem solved.

They are exceptions like NieR that actually prefer english voice but for most cases I just go with JP voice.

 

[MagiusNecros]

I think she suppose to dragon girl since she has dragon wings and tail.

Dragon Girl. Lost one wing in a accident. Game might explore that. The accent IMO isn't that bad and intended in a cute way. Character blurb says they hail from a Wind Valley and they have a Southern Valley Girl accent. Which is hilarious. "GIDDY UP" lol

 

[Wonko_C]

Is this running on Unreal Engine like Trials of Mana? I wanna UEVR mod the wazoo out of it.

 

[nikos]

Looking like a shit PC port. Was really looking forward to this and quit the demo after a few minutes. It's Unreal Engine, so the community fixes should come quickly when the game releases.

Greeted with the option of Graphics or Performance. I'm on PC, so the answer is both.
No ultrawide support.
No graphics settings. Limited resolution options.
Image quality isn't great.
FOV is bad. Feels claustrophobic even with the camera zoomed out.

I'll try it on Steam Deck OLED as well, but people are mentioning capping the frame rate at 30 or 45 FPS which is not playable to me.

 

[Gaiff]

Looking like a shit PC port. Was really looking forward to this and quit the demo after a few minutes. It's Unreal Engine, so the community fixes should come quickly when the game releases.

Greeted with the option of Graphics or Performance. I'm on PC, so the answer is both.
No ultrawide support.
No graphics settings. Limited resolution options.
Image quality isn't great.
FOV is bad. Feels claustrophobic even with the camera zoomed out.

It’s a demo. Graphics options will probably be in the full version. Not quite FOV adjustment but you can choose to zoom out the camera.

 

[nikos]

It’s a demo. Graphics options will probably be in the full version. Not quite FOV adjustment but you can choose to zoom out the camera.

I'm sure the graphics settings will be there. Hopefully it's an easy ultrawide mod. Even with the camera on the furthest zoom setting, it's too claustrophobic for me.

 

[Gaiff]

I'm sure the graphics settings will be there. Hopefully it's an easy ultrawide mod. Even with the camera on the furthest zoom setting, it's too claustrophobic for me.

Think I'll just get it for PS5. The work with JRPG ports is just beyond lazy. I have to play at 1440p because there's no ultrawide and there won't be upon release either. There are also shader compilation stutters.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Downloaded on deck will try tomorrow.

 

[jshackles]

Looking like a shit PC port. Was really looking forward to this and quit the demo after a few minutes. It's Unreal Engine, so the community fixes should come quickly when the game releases.

Greeted with the option of Graphics or Performance. I'm on PC, so the answer is both.
No ultrawide support.
No graphics settings. Limited resolution options.
Image quality isn't great.
FOV is bad. Feels claustrophobic even with the camera zoomed out.

I'll try it on Steam Deck OLED as well, but people are mentioning capping the frame rate at 30 or 45 FPS which is not playable to me.

My experience as well, but I can personally look past these flaws because a) they'll probably get fixed with mods or patches and b) I love the series.

I played a bit on Deck, and yeah 30fps is the way to do it. Uncapped I was getting a big fluctuation between 29-48

 

[Pantz]

Did anyone else have to turn the brightness down? It's rare that I have to mess with default brightness settings but this one was looking way too bright (on Steam/PC).
Well, I enjoyed it. Already want to play the demo a second time. No ultrawide support is unfortunate.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I was already sold and demo convicted me even more.

The artstyle is absolutely gorgeous and combat is fun.

 

[Stafford]

It's great so far. Combat feels very good, you can switch on the fly between characters which is awesome. I'm coming from Sand Land and difficulty wise it isn't too hard, but this is a different story. You gotta pay attention to a lot of stuff. The ability to slow down time during combat is very nice, feels fresh.

Visually very nice, there's a performance and quality mode and so far both seem 60fps to me. The only jarring thing is how cutscenes are not 60fps in both modes, immediately noticeable.

That being said, really not fond of how the main character looks, just not a fan of that hairdo. Tf bro? But the stuff that matters most is great so far.

 

[Skifi28]

I've managed to play for about 10 minutes so not sure yet, but combat seems a bit too simplistic and the battles look chaotic with spell effects everywhere and characters flying about. I'll finish it in the evening. I hope there's more moves/skills to perform than the ones you start with.

 

[Fake]

Nothing here to me yet.

 

[ssringo]

Copied from other demo thread

"First impression wasn't so good. Got that super wonderful UE4 shader compilation stutter that PC gamers love. Maybe the full game just does a compilation at the start. Big oof if not. The 30fps cutscenes (sometimes!) is just lol and combat felt rather clunky. And I really hate hearing southern twang in most dubs. Seems to a be a thing where the character apparently "speaks weird" in Japanese so they give em the ol' twang accent. Maybe it's because southern twang feels so out of place in a fantasy setting or maybe it's simply because I'm from the south. Dunno but it bugs me. And of course there's plenty of dialogue while running around so either listen to the dub, stop to read subtitles constantly or just ignore it all.

I remember really liking Trials of Mana but nostalgia is a helluva drug so maybe I was able to look past issues. I'm going to give it another try but right now it went from day purchase to maybe on sale."

I tried it again and nah. Not for me.

 

[nikos]

For my ultrwaide brethren:

ULTRAWIDE FULL GAME :: Visions of Mana General Discussions

I MADE A GUIDE, EASIER TO FOLLOW AND CAN BE SEEN IN-GAME https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3319704051 At the moment, this game has all the hallmarks of a typical "half-hearted lazy Square Enix port" Some cutscenes are locked at 30 FPS, while some others short ones run at 60...

steamcommunity.com

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

For my ultrwaide brethren:

ULTRAWIDE FULL GAME :: Visions of Mana General Discussions

I MADE A GUIDE, EASIER TO FOLLOW AND CAN BE SEEN IN-GAME https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3319704051 At the moment, this game has all the hallmarks of a typical "half-hearted lazy Square Enix port" Some cutscenes are locked at 30 FPS, while some others short ones run at 60...

steamcommunity.com

Thanks, glad they figured this out so quickly. But it is pathetic that in the year 2024 we still need to use a hex editor to change the aspect ratio and FoV.

 

[Exentryk]

I was wanting to try the combat, so demo is good news. Will try by this weekend.

 

[nikos]

Thanks, glad they figured this out so quickly. But it is pathetic that in the year 2024 we still need to use a hex editor to change the aspect ratio and FoV.

I'm sure the final release will be fixed very quickly, especially because it's an Unreal Engine game.

Feels way better but still claustrophobic because the character is so close to the camera, even at the furthest setting.

The game also doesn't feel like it's running at a high framerate even though it is. The animations look off to me.

Still going to buy this on day one lol.

 

[sigmaZ]

Mentioned in another thread, but the battle attacks feel too laggy and the getting knocked over and the recovery time feel awful.

 

[adamsapple]

Good to see even the Prioritize Graphics target 60 FPS, should be the best way to play on VRR.